Don't talk to whales

You aren't ready to receive their wisdom

We may soon develop the ability to talk to whales. To anyone with even an ounce of whimsy or curious joy, this is obviously pretty exciting. It's hard not to imagine the radical wave of empathy that this could cause, as we realize we're not as special as we previously thought.^[1] 

There are two main research groups that I know of working on this, Earth Species Project and Project CETI, and the effort to decode sperm whale communication in particular seems well under way. 

I think we should seriously consider that, as a civilization, we are not ready to handle this well, and that we should aim to delay our first contact with whales, rather than doing research to accelerate it.

Some thoughts^[2]:

1. Exploitation and whaling

Both ESP and Project CETI are publicly committed to open-source research, and are actively sharing their datasets, methods, and models online^[3]. Project CETI intends to build "the most comprehensive open-source animal communication dataset ever created^[4]". Rather than a controlled and careful effort to bridge the human-whale divide, this technology may become highly democratized, enabling a large number of actors to independently attempt to make contact^[5].

The most obvious economic use case is, unfortunately, whaling. While most countries have stopped hunting whales, there are still roughly 1500 whales killed annually, and many whale species are on the edge of extinction. The IWC has virtually no enforcement power, and it is still legal in multiple countries. Like sirens luring sailors to their deaths at sea, whalers could manipulate the behavior of whales to their advantage^[6][7]. While it seems likely that communicating with them would galvanize momentum around their protection, we don't seem to have the governance systems in place that could effectively prevent misuse.

There is also a history of the military training dolphins to perform various tasks, like surveillance, recovering equipment, or tagging underwater mines.^[8] How soon after we learn to speak to whales will we recruit them to fight our wars?

2. Irreversible cultural change

With uncontacted indigenous groups in the Amazon, or on North Sentinel Island, we have developed policies to protect them and their cultures. For example a Brazilian government agency enforces no-contact for about a hundred different groups of uncontacted people, to protect them from cultural contamination and disease. 

If we start talking to whales, and we are not careful, we may significantly alter their culture. Even ESP acknowledges that 

experiments may run the risk of altering culture by introducing novel calls that spread in wild populations (Garland and McGregor, 2020). To mitigate these risks, we will focus on captive populations, and populations whose vocal communication is not socially learned

This could end up being an enormous tragedy, both from the perspective of the whales, and from the perspective of anyone hoping to understand and learn from whale culture. Whales may have had complex language for millions of years, which would be much longer than humans or their ancestors. 

We only get to make first contact once. When we do, we should be extremely careful.^[9] 

3. Linguistic prejudice 

Humans have historically used their language abilities and intelligence to justify their own supremacy. The rise of AI systems, who are developing superhuman language/reasoning skills, seriously challenge this justification for our place at the top. This leaves us humans with a choice:

1. Bite the bullet and embrace our new gods
2. Admit that language and intelligence weren't that important anyways

I would hope we take this opportunity, when humanity needs to reconstruct its own identity, to lean into what we have in common with all animals: the ability to feel, to suffer. 

In addition, we already heavily prioritize "charismatic" animals, like dolphins and pandas. While they are beloved, this love doesn't obviously spill over into other animals (who are much more numerous). For example, when the first Save the Whales movement took off, while the whaling industry collapsed, the fishing industry still continued to grow. 

Forming this connection with whales might reinforce the existing hierarchy, instead of collapse it. 

4. Locking in wild animal suffering

We might hope that communicating with whales could lead to a moral revolution. I admit that the image of a whale, teleconferencing in via AI-drone to address the UN (calling out Norway and Japan directly, of course), would be radically badass. 

That said, there is a difficult tension between our concern for animals as sentient individuals, and our concern for them at the species or ecosystem level. Whales are predators (sperm whales, for example, hunt squid), and their interests are not obviously aligned with the rest of the animal kingdom. They may also want, very reasonably, to be left alone, and given sovereignty over the seas, even at the expense of the trillions/quadrillions of other animals who live there. 

I think this tension is quite serious, and we don't yet have good answers on how to handle it. I'm deeply nervous about humanity making a big decision too early about our relationship to nature, and to all the sentient individuals who live there. Currently, most whale advocacy has come from a conservationist perspective, focused on species and ecosystems rather than individual welfare. Locking in wild animal suffering before we develop the technology and wisdom to navigate this tension could be devastatingly bad.

Conclusion

Talking to whales would be one of the coolest things to happen in my lifetime. I feel strongly that whales, like all animals, deserve a seat at the table in our parliament of the future, to advocate with dignity for their own interests. 

The arguments above lead me to think that we first need to mature as a civilization, both in terms of our ability to coordinate to prevent unilateral action, and in terms of our morality and meta-moral wisdom. 

In a better world, we would make contact slowly, carefully, and with the understanding that every sentient being matters, whether or not they can speak.

We would say hello, and wait to be invited.

1. ^{^}

   Like how the Roger Payne album started the Save the Whales movement. I have listened to this so many times, it's enchanting.

2. ^{^}

   I do not want to imply that researchers at either organization have not already considered objections to this work. I'm just voicing my own concerns here.

3. ^{^}

   Project CETI GitHub, ESP GitHub & HuggingFace.

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I really wonder whether this data will make its way into frontier AI training, and what the implications are.

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Despite the fact that it's illegal to visit North Sentinel Island, a missionary in 2018 felt it was his "burden" to convert the Sentinelese (an uncontacted group) to Christianity, and was killed attempting to make contact. Even if we were to establish clear rules for first contact, that does not mean a rogue actor won't attempt to tell the sperm whales about Jesus Christ.

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Some of the technology shared publicly is not even about decoding, but on detecting and localizing whales, as a part of their data collection efforts. This tech might also be dual use, even before successful decoding.

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Researchers have successfully used a robot bee to recruit honey bees to go foraging. I would hope sperm whales are less gullible...

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Dolphins are currently fighting in the Ukraine war apparently???

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For any Ursula K. Le Guin fans: Shouldn't we aspire to be like the Ekumen, sending a lone envoy who can first establish contact, and personal relationships with the whales? Shouldn't we wait to be invited?

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